Like any civilised book launch, as part of the programme I will always read an excerpt from the new release. Easy right? I mean, it’s just picking the right place and pressing go, yes? Well, until I was involved in recordings for an audio book, I would have agreed. Nothing to worry about. But that was then. This is now … (Cue ominous music …)

Last year we began the machinations of producing Immortal Mistake as an audio book. Despite this process not turning out quite as expected, with a couple family emergencies thrown in for good measure, it was an excellent learning opportunity to really explore the nuances of storytelling.

Fast forward to the Immortal Mistake book launch and imagine me standing up with novel poised to the scene of focus. Eyes of attendees are homed, awaiting their first taste of the story. I launch in, and then realise there are multiple characters in this scene. And I haven’t paused to think about how I’m going to represent them. Sweet high pitch? Growly low pitch? Deeper than the previous character? And here they are again. Was that the low-pitched, softly spoken voice, or the more abrasive, pointed one? Conundrum!

Through the audio book work, I had become acutely aware of the need for consistency throughout the reading—from start of book to end—and how important it is to pre-plan how each character will be vocally represented and then keeping this consistent scene-after-scene. I had not given this a milli-second of thought before starting, for it had never been an issue in the past. But like I said, this is now …

For this reason I now have heightened respect for the talent of my parents, who feature in my earliest childhood memories of bedtime stories with me and my siblings. Night-after-night, they could get bold and bouncy T-t-tigger the T-t-tiger who looooves to b-b-bounce with just the right resonance, pitch and pace, whilst hesitant and worried Piglet was easily recognised before a page could be sighted. Pace and pitch were adjusted to suit mood and motion, so when the little chick is trying to find it’s mother, we didn’t need to guess which character was speaking. All around we delighted in those storytelling moments.

In reflection, this is more of a skill than I’d previous considered. (You know, back then.) Maybe I should ask Mum and Dad for some professional development before my next audio book attempt. 😉